An Engagement commission by Anna Haydock-Wilson, developed in collaboration with Creative Youth Network alumni Caitlin Dawkes, Holly Humphries, Ryan Convery-Moroney and Tsipora St. Clair Knights.
Place Portrait is a multimedia installation that examines the complexity of a specific area, as well as how people experience and perceive different places. The work explores Spike Island’s neighbourhood and includes interviews with local characters (both human and more-than-human), ambient sound, still and moving images, and found, reused and newly created materials.
Central to the commission is an installation consisting of a wooden structure that evokes the masts, cranes and scaffolding that dominate Spike Island’s skyline. This structure fosters a sense of curiosity and exploration, and is surrounded by photographic portraits with QR codes linking to video portraits. Finally, an audio work of recordings taken in and around Spike Island completes the installation. The work invites us to connect with our locality and to re-think our neighbourhoods.
Anna Haydock-Wilson
Anna Haydock-Wilson connects people through participatory activities to encourage discussion and action around shifting societal status quos. Her activities have engaged people from diverse communities across London and in the South West. Collaborative initiatives include Little Fish Films, Art under the Flyover, Peaceful Portway, Art within the Cracks and acts of (in)visible repair. Haydock-Wilson studied fine art and independent filmmaking in London, and recent exhibitions include Inhabited Spaces (2019), Centre of Gravity (2020) and Make Gallery Exeter (2021).
Caitlin Dawkes
Caitlin Dawkes is an artist who is interested in exploring the (dis)comforting effect of art objects through tactile sculpture. Dawkes uses soft materials to create exaggeratingly tactile objects that aim to challenge traditional interactions with art through haptic engagement. Dawkes studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, UAL (2022) and recent exhibitions include Raid R X Horse Hospital, Horse Hospital (2022) and We Don’t Have All The Answers, The Station (2022).
Holly Humphries
Holly Humphries is a Bristol-based artist who works with the themes of consumption and desire. Hinting at ‘you are what you eat’, Humphries’ work analyses the parallels of our literal, visceral, sensual selves, to food, packaging, and advertising. Working across painting, installation and sculpture, she tempts physical and tangible sensations. She is part of East Bristol Contemporary and has exhibited at The Station (2022), St Anne’s House (2023) and The Arts Mansion (2023).
Ryan Convery-Moroney
Ryan Convery-Moroney is a photographer and documentarist. He is interested in architecture, social structure, psychogeography and the multifaceted use of urban space and planning. In his work, Convery-Moroney explores how we observe, feel, act and behave in space depending on our individual or collective knowledge, intentions or interests.
Tsipora St. Clair Knights
Tsipora St. Clair Knights is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the complexities of identity through movement, film and spoken word. She studied dance at Bath Spa and has participated in various programmes including Old Vic Backstage A Number (2021-2022) and 100 Agents of Change Residency with In Place of War (2021). She is a Board Member of Purple Moon Drama and Rising Arts Agency.
PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS
marks the culmination of the second Spike Island and Creative Youth Network Engagement Fellowship for Artists and is part of the West of England Visual Arts Alliance programme, supported by Arts Council England.